Method to sort currency

ABSTRACT

Method to sort old and worn out currency which should be removed from circulation from currency which is either new or still usable by detecting the stiffness of the bill to sort the old currency from new currency.

United States Patent Inventor Philip N. Smith Spartanburg, S.C. Appl.No. 782,276 Filed Dec. 9, 1968 Patented Jan. 5, 1971 Assignee DeeringMillikeu Research Corporation Spartanburg, S.C. a corporation of SouthCarolina METHOD TO SORT CURRENCY 1 Claim, 1 Drawing Fig.

U.S. Cl 209/115 Int. Cl B07c 1/16 [50] Field of Search 209/74, PMSD,115,79

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,951,164 8/1960 Timms209/75X 3,199,673 8/1965 Flint 209/79 Primary Examiner-Richard A.Schacher Attorneys-H William Petty and Norman C. Armitage ABSTRACT:Method to sort old and worn out currency which should be removed fromcirculation from currency which is either new or still usable bydetecting the stiffness of the bill to sort the old currency from newcurrency.

PATENTEU JAN 5197i INVENTOR. PHILIP N. SMITH ATTORNEY I METHOD TO SQRTCURRENCY in many banks and in most all Federal Reserve banks people areemployed to examine currency to determine whether it should be placed incirculation or whether it should be returned to the Bureau of Engravingfor destruction. This operation requires hours of manual labor, is verytime consuming and is very boring to the operator.

Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a method toseparate old currency from currency which still can be used in everydaycirculation.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become readilyapparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention withreference to the accompanying drawing, in which the new and improvedmethod is represented schematically.

The bills to be inspected are placed on a plate member 12 which isbiased toward the driven roll 14 by the spring 16 in the container 18.The roll 14 preferably has a roughened surface to provide a gripping orfrictional force on the bills 10 to direct the individual bills into thenip of rolls 20 and 22. A second pair of rolls 24 and 26 are spaced fromthe first pair of rolls 20 and 22v Mounted around upper rolls 2%) and 24and around lower rolls 22 and 26 are endless aprons 23 and 30 tomaintain control over the bills 10 as they pass between the nip of rolls20 and 22 and the nip of rolls 24 and 26. Located on the output side ofthe nip of rolls 24 and 26 are three dividers or baffles 32, 34 and 36which have a top portion at an angle to the horizontal and a bottomsection which is substantially vertical and culminates adjacent thebottom of a collection bin 33. 40 or 42.

OPERATlON In operation, bills 10 to be sorted are placed on the platemember 12 and are urged upwardly by the spring 16 toward the roller 14,As the roller 14 rotates, it supplies the top bill into the nip of rolls20 and 22 from whence it is supplied to the nip of rolls 24 and 26wherein the bill ll) is given an impetus toward the collection bins 38,40 and 42. if the bill is new or substantially new, the bill A will notsag and will be projected over the divider 36 and be guided by thedivider 36 into the collection bin 38. If the bill projected from thenip of the rolls 24 and 26 has seen considerable use, it will either sagas indicated by B or C and will drop into either the bin 46 or 42 Thebins 40 and 42 are so located that older bills that can still be reusedwill fall into the bin 48 while bills which should be destroyed willdrop into the bin $2 The spacing of the dividers 32, 34 and 36 and thespeed of the rolls 20, 22, 24 and 26 is so selected that the properimpetus is given to the bills from the nip of rolls 24 and 26 and theamount of sag of the bills will select the proper collection bin.

it can readily be seen that the hereindescribed method willautomatically sort the currency and that all that an operator has to dois load the bills onto the plate member l2 and exchange the bins 33, 40and 42 when they are full, thereby eliminating the boring and timeconsuming job of manually inspecting the bills in order to separate theminto bills to be destroyed and bills to be recirculated.

Although I have described the specific method of my invention, 1contemplate that changes may be made without departing from the scope orspirit of my invention and l desire to be limited only by the scope ofthe claims.

I claim:

1. A method of sorting old currency from new currency comprising thesteps of providing a stack of currency to be sorted, sequentiallyremoving the top bill from the stack of currency as it becomes the topbill, projecting the removed bill into a substantial horizontaldirection, allowing the projected bill to sag and directing the saggingbill into a preselected collection zone depending on the amount of sagof the billv

1. A method of sorting old currency from new currency comprising thesteps of providing a stack of currency to be sorted, sequentiallyremoving the top bill from the stack of currency as it becomes the topbill, projecting the removed bill into a substantial horizontaldirection, allowing the projected bill to sag and directing the saggingbill into a preselected collection zone depending on the amount of sagof the bill.